Allan Shivers, 77, Was Former Texas Governor

January 16, 1985|By United Press International.

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Former Texas Gov. Allan Shivers, the only gubernatorial candidate in state history to run as a Republican and a Democrat at the same time, has died after suffering a heart attack. He was 77.

Services were set for 2 p.m. CST today at First Baptist Church in Austin with burial to follow at the State Cemetery.

Shivers served as the state`s chief executive from 1949 to 1957, longer than any other Texas governor.

His reputation for integrity and common sense won him enthusiastic bipartisan support, and when he ran as a candidate for both parties in 1952, he secured 1.37 million Democratic votes and 468,000 Republican ones.

Shivers was taken by ambulance to Seton Medical Center at 5:30 p.m. Monday from his downtown Austin office, and an hourlong effort to revive him was unsuccessful, a hospital spokesman said.

She said Shivers was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. by his personal physician, Dr. Horace Clomer.

Shivers was the longtime board chairman of Austin National Bank, now InterFirst Bank Austin. He was at his office in InterFirst`s downtown bank and ``had been working and carrying on as usual`` before suffering the attack, a family member said.

Shivers was elected lieutenant governor in 1946 and 1948 and assumed the governorship on July 11, 1949, upon the death of Gov. Beauford Jester. He was re-elected in 1950, 1952 and 1954.

After retiring as governor, Shivers was elected president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and, in addition, served from 1973-79 as a member of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, the last four years as chairman.

Shivers, a lifelong Democrat, consistently supported Republican presidential candidates over a 30-year span, including making public appearances last fall in Austin to boost President Reagan`s re-election campaign.